Happenings

Our life is getting crazier every day lately, and its probably time to call in reinforcements, but there doesn't seem to be a line of volunteers to cook, clean, drive, and do everything around here....
3/17 St. Patricks's Day - our favorite holiday. There shouldn't be school.
4/3 7pm PGJHS Dance Concert - FREE!!!
4/11 Natalie Melanie and I head to Paris, suckas! Haha, just kidding. We are so excited!

I want to post some pics, but it isn't working. So I will try later.

So, um, we're not dead, just have been super busy. I don't know if anyone even checks here anymore, or if you just became friends with Natalie on facebook to keep up to date on us!
If you still read here, and you post to this that you do, I will have the girls post some of their pictures from the last few months (they both bought cameras and I dont' think I've taken a picture since!
The first 5 people to post will get something made by me!!! (probably food : )

SUPERPOST: Road Trip! 1400 miles and almost too much teenager

Wow! I don't even know where to start. What a fun, crazy, wild road trip!

UEA: Unusually Entertaining Antics

We started out on Wednesday, Natalie, Melanie, Alicia, Annie, and ME OF COURSE! Tons of stuff piled into the van, all gassed up and ready to go. We made it all the way to Mesquite, where we stopped for the night.

Thursday we had a leisurely jaunt through Las Vegas, visited the M&M factory, MGM Grand, and ate lunch at 9 Fine Irishmen. The food was delicious! Natalie had Irish stew, that was probably the best dish, and our dessert, bread and butter pudding with irish whiskey sauce (yeah, it was all cooked down) was probably the best dessert I've ever had in my entire life.

These pictures are of the outside of the M&M factory on the strip in Las Vegas

The girls at Nine Fine Irishmen: Left to Right: Annie, Natalie, Alicia, Melanie
Being Crazy
Natalie and Alicia

Queen Melanie is about to make a decree

At the M&M factory

The Coke Bear - that has to be hot in 90 degree weather!

Once we were tired of Vegas, we drove to Prescott, AZ, to Kassidi's house for the night.

The sleeping accomodations...... at Kassidi's house!

Friday we kidnapped Kassidi and took her with us to Phoenix, checked into our plush hotel, and drove to the enormous Arizona Mills outlet mall. We shopped until we dropped then had dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. The weather in Phoenix was a chilly 95 degrees..... so we went swimming outdoors!

Natalie and Kassidi try to ride the kiddie rides at the mall

They are in love with the lizzard at the Rainforest Cafe

Making friends at the Rainforest Cafe
Melanie is trying really hard to have a longer neck....

Saturday was our Feis in Phoenix at St. Pauls Catholic church. Melanie got a third place in her novice set, and Natalie got 1st place in novice treble Jig and Horn Pipe (both hard shoe dances), 2nd place in her novice slip jig and single jig, third place in her prizewinner light jig, and a Fourth Place TROPHY in the novice/prizewinner slip jig special. Since we aren't allowed to take photos or video at a feis, and this one was pretty cramped so it would be hard to hide, I only have one photo.
If you look closely, you can see that Natalie is holding her trophy. That is Kassidi and Alicia on either side of her and all of her junk in front of her. Way too much junk.

Waiting to be seated at the Olive Garden

Saturday night we drove back to Kassidi's house, ate at the Olive Garden, had a crazy dance party, spent the night, then got up on Sunday and hugged Kassidi goodbye.

Alicia... ummmm, don't know what to say, exactly, except, is that seat belt on your head?

Melanie and Her Posse

POST DANCE PARTY

We drove through Sedona to the Grand Canyon. Beautiful drive. The Grand Canyon was truly grand. I have seen pictures my whole life, but it really is so much bigger in person. Everyone around us was speaking foreign languages. We watched the sunset from Desert View and the watchtower. So pretty!

Sunset at the Grand Canyon

Then we drove to Page, AZ, and spent the night. We had great pizza from Strombolli's.


Monday morning we lounged around at Lake Powell for a few hours, getting a little sun, collecting some rocks and shells, and playing in the water. We arrived home around 9:30 Monday night.

So, that was the facts and figures, here is some of the crazy stuff:

Teenagers and Novels: WOW! I think a combined 1000 pages was devoured during this roadtrip: Twilight series, Peter and the Starcatchers series, Eragon series, lots of giggles and "ooooh, you have to read this part" or "do you remember this part" and "don't tell her what happens next". It was great! It made the miles fly by!

Teenagers and Music: YIKES! I think I lost a few decibels this trip. I heard music I haven't honestly hear before (yeah, I am an old lady and I live up a tree apparently)... like a song called "bubblegum?" .....boy you've got me chokin on my bubblegum" sheesh.... really intelligent stuff! The music wasn't all bad, and I did get used to it, but the volume was a little wearing.


Growing up: One of my most interesting observations was that Natalie is actually a teenager now. She has all the symptoms. Luckily, she (and her friends) are comfortable being teenagers around me, so I didn't have to hide in the bathroom.

Melanie: What a trooper! She normally has Natalie all to herself, but this time had to share her with a bunch of teenagers! She entertained them with her crazy antics and they treated her just like one of the gang. It made her feel great!

The VAN: Yeah, ummmm, time for a new one. The spedometer fluctuates between 0 and 100 so you never quite know how fast you are going. The radio is possessed, although it behaved itself surprisingly well on the roadtrip until we got back to Utah County. The check engine light came on about 40 miles from home. The emergency brake light comes on an beeps everytime you turn a corner or a curve at more than 10 mph. Other than that, great van! Only 68,000 miles! Wanna buy it? Chip, cookie, pizza, and m&m crumbs come free!

Canning Count

So, just for the heck of it, (and to prove to myself that I really have been busy) I decided to write down all the stuff I've canned this year. I won't count all the stuff I've frozen, but lets just say we aren't going to starve anytime soon. This doesn't count all the stuff I've already given away.
Here goes:
Peaches 85
Grape Juice 45
Apricots 8
Apricot jam 10
Apricot pancake syrup 28
Peach jam 9
Peach pancake syrup 3
Salsa 55
Pickled zucchini 6
Pickled Beans 7
Pickled Beets 8
Pickle relish 5

Yeah, I've been busy, so hopefully things will slow down now and I can start posting more.

behind the scenes: dance competition

notice all the STUFF! dresses laid out everywhere. Melanie is enjoying her gummy weems.
Trophies and medals are fun, but where do you put them on the way home?
hmmmm, too much late night tv? Melanie and Rachel.
The car ride is crazy time!

Until they all fall asleep, finally.

Catching up

Sept 19-20 Boise Feis. Melanie is the one facing this way. She did great! 4 medals! Way to go!
This is the dress Natalie wanted to buy. We took tons of pictures and now have to convince grandma to make it. Now accepting donations toward the dress cause... She will do whatever you need her to do! She is a hard worker! Doesn't she look gorgeous in this dress?
Natalie in between dances. Behind her you see the arena and the stages.
Natalie's best dance friend Annie. We had so much fun carpooling!
Natalie getting tired of waiting for results.

We went camping with our ward to Shalom. Alec likes to roast stuff
Melanie is having fun, can you tell?
This was their favorite part, trying to sink the docks down at the lake.
We had a wicked awesome garden this summer! Produced so much food that melanie had to stand on the street corner and sell it all! Canned tons of food too and ate well. Here are some of our mutant tomatoes... fun!

Sorry about the long time. I had a nagging toothache for about a month and it completely threw me off! And, school started August 18th for the kids and the next week for me and things are back to crazy, crazy, crazy!

But I wanted to post some pics of happenings anyway... better late than never.

Natalie auditioned for the Rhythym of Ireland dance company and made it! They have a website, so you can watch for performances or call me.

I have been canning like a maniac, too, so I will have to take some pics of the storage room.

New Dog House

Chris built a new dog house for our doggies out of scrap he found in the garage. They enjoy its shade and spend a lot of time lounging inside. It has been a nice way to keep them out of the house this summer! We let them come in on super hot days and at night, but they like to be outside, it seems!

Summer fun

We had a family campout at Heber Valley Camp with Lorne, Logan and Michelle and family, Andy and Melissa and family, Hannah and Jeph and family, Matt and Ashley, and Charlene and Robin.. We saw moose, squirrels, deer, lots of butterflies, and pretty flowers. We roasted marshmallows and starbursts, ate yummy pancakes, paddled on the lake, played games, and DIDN'T SLEEP!



Spencer and Kelsey missed camp because they had a baby the morning we were leaving! COOL! She is adorable... pictures when I have them (or check out her blog at behrendfamily.blogspot.com)




Joanna and Tavia enjoyed our nature hike.

We hiked to Timp Cave. Super steep uphill climb, but the cave was beautiful!

4th of July Parade. Spencer, Kelsey, and Natalie and Melanie and a couple of their friends slept out on the parade route to get us some fab seats.

This is Alec's idea of how to stay cool. Fill small swimming pool with water, jump until the water is all out. Repeat.

Here is what it looks like after the idea catches on

4th of July Balloon Launch - Aliah and grandma